Mourinho Not Thinking About El Clasico: "Our Priority Is the Champions League"

Jose Mourinho said he will not spend "a single minute" thinking about the weekend's El Clasico against Barcelona until Real Madrid have completed their midweek Champions League fixture.

Real Madrid beat Sevilla 4-1 in LaLiga, with the goals coming from Kylian Mbappe (2), Arda Güler and Yan Diomande. The result keeps Los Blancos six points behind leaders Barcelona, whom they visit on Sunday.

During his first spell in Madrid between 2010 and 2013, Mourinho won 5 of his 17 matches against Barça (6 draws, 6 defeats). 3 of those wins came in 9 away games (3 draws, 3 defeats).

However, ahead of Wednesday's crucial Champions League clash with RB Leipzig, the experienced head coach is keeping his focus on the short term.

Asked about El Clasico, Mourinho said: "First we have a Champions League game to play, and right now that is the only match on our minds. Until 23:00 on Wednesday night, I will not spend a single minute thinking about our opponent next Sunday."

The Portuguese coach continued: "There is no formula to measure which 11 players most deserve to play. Many players deserve a place; today some came on later and some never left the bench. For example, Antonio Rüdiger, who scored the winning goal against Roma, didn't even get any minutes today. We had more of the ball, we controlled the game, we created many chances and we found our wingers often. It was a very good match for us."

After the match, Sevilla head coach Luis Garcia reacted angrily to Arda Güler not being sent off for an alleged elbow on Peque Fernandez. Mourinho, however, was surprised by his counterpart's outburst.

Discussing the incident, Mourinho said: "I'm not commenting on that. Nobody has been able to show me the incident they are talking about; I haven't seen a single image. I asked my analysts and the TV team for footage, but I found nothing relating to the incident that upset Luis so much. If one day I think a mistake has been made in our favour, I won't hesitate to say so openly, but by the natural course of things, it's usually the other way round."

Asked whether he was worried that Arda Güler could also be suspended for the Barcelona clash, with Vinicius Junior already banned, Mourinho concluded: "I haven't thought about El Clasico for a single minute; I was only focused on winning this match. It's great for a coach who conceded four goals and lost to get the chance to answer four or five questions about this incident, because it allows him to talk about other things. I looked at the incident on the tablet at the time and saw nothing. Did any of you see anything? That's why I struggle to understand this obsession with the question."